Meet our team

Veronica Mendoza is a Chumash advocate, narrative strategist, and founder of The Act of Recovery Foundation — an organization built on the conviction that lasting ecological restoration begins within: that the condition of our lands and waters reflects the consciousness of the people who steward them.

The Act of Recovery Foundation sits at the convergence of Indigenous sovereignty, ecological stewardship, and inner transformation. Drawing on Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the Foundation advances the principle that conservation value is both ecological and cultural — that land health and community relationship are inseparable, and that recovery, in its fullest sense, must tend to both.

Veronica's own arc embodies this. As Director of Strategy and Narrative for the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, cofounder and Vice President of California Habitat for Indigenous Arts, and a leading public voice for the protection of Point Sal, she has testified before the California Fish and Game Commission and the California Coastal Commission, building coalitions that unite ancestral knowledge, scientific rigor, and regulatory strategy in service of long-term protection of Chumash ancestral waters.

Her background in large-scale production, media, and storytelling before audiences of 80,000 and on film and television sets informs the Foundation's approach to narrative as a tool for transformation. She understands that changing the story we tell about land, recovery, and belonging is not separate from the work of healing them. It is the work.

Emily Pudalov brings more than seventeen years of nonprofit administration, grant writing, and direct community service to her role at the Act of Recovery Foundation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies from Brown University, and is completing a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a depth psychology concentration at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Emily is a Medi-Cal Certified Peer Support Specialist and a Family Peer Support Specialist at Telecare Magnolia House in Los Angeles, a crisis residential treatment program serving adults with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance use disorders. She brings lived knowledge of the systems, barriers, and breakthroughs that shape recovery for the communities the Act of Recovery Foundation serves.

Her earlier career includes two years at the Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine, where she supported grant-funded programs, fundraising events, and donor stewardship. She is fluent in Portuguese and conversational in Spanish, and brings a deep commitment to accessible, trauma-informed programming that meets people where they are.

Mary E. Drake is a longtime Santa Barbara County community member and academic personnel analyst from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she served across multiple departments including Environmental Studies, Budget and Planning, Sociology, and Chemistry.

A Chumash lineal descendant with deep roots in the Santa Ynez Valley and a Santa Barbara native, Mary brings to the Act of Recovery Foundation a grounded understanding of the communities, landscapes, and cultural histories that shape the organization's work. She joined as a founding board member with a lifelong investment in Indigenous community wellbeing and the belief that cultural continuity and personal recovery are inseparable.